If Jimmy Butler indeed is in the midst of his endgame with the Miami Heat, the process hardly is an outlier during Pat Riley’s three decades of stewardship of the franchise.
It’s almost as if it’s the team’s own version of the 3Rs.
Relocation of a leading man.
Recovery in the short term.
Reload for the team’s next iteration.
Over the years, it is how it has played out with the likes of Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
Up next — at least if he gets his way — would be Butler, with Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena marking the end of his unpaid seven-game team suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
In many of the cases, the endings with Heat leading men have been awkward and, at least initially, unrewarding.
But for the most part, not only have rosters been resuscitated, but relationships have been repaired.
So here the Heat stand again, in a standoff, but with a history of regaining solid footing.
Tim Hardaway
Amid declining play and knee issues, Hardaway’s time was winding down with the Heat in 2000-01, his relationship with the team hardly the best amid a series of contractually obligated weigh-ins mandated by Riley, who at that time also was coaching.
With the Heat swept out of the first round of the 2001 playoffs by the Charlotte Hornets, it had become clear that the end was there, Hardaway’s $12 million salary in 2000-01 reduced to $3.4 million in 2001-02 when he was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks for a second-round pick.
It was an ugly parting.
“Everyone who has left is bitter because of Pat Riley,” Hardaway said at the time. “He doesn’t let the players be themselves.”
From there the Heat cycled through a variety of point guards in a bid to replace their All-Star, including Rod Strickland, Anthony Carter, Mike James, Bimbo Coles, Rafer Alston and Keyon Dooling, before regaining stability with Jason Williams during the run to the 2006 championship.
Through it all, the Heat welcomed Hardaway back for the retirement of his No. 10 jersey in 2009.
Alonzo Mourning
Even with kidney illness keeping him out for the 2002-03 season, Mourning’s expectation was of another significant contract with the Heat.
Instead, with the Heat unwilling to match the four-year, $22 million package offered by the New Jersey Nets, Riley’s first Heat icon walked away.
At the time, Riley said, “I never thought that I’d come to a day that we wouldn’t be together. We made him a proposal that he would be with us for the rest of his life.”
The departure of Mourning set in motion one of the fastest rebuilds in Riley’s stewardship, with Lamar Odom added in free agency that summer, then flipped the following summer in the trade with the Lakers that onboarded O’Neal, with the franchise’s first title following in 2006.
Mourning eventually rejoined the Heat for that 2006 title run, with his No. 33 Heat jersey retired in 2009.
Shaquille O’Neal
Having led the Heat to that 2006 championship, O’Neal grew increasingly frustrated with the direction of the franchise after it was swept out of the 2007 playoffs in the first round by the Chicago Bulls, the first NBA champions swept out of the first round the following season since the Philadelphia Warriors in 1957.
It got even worse the following season, with the Heat 8-33 at midseason and O’Neal making it clear that he did not want to remain.
Eventually the Heat relented to antics, sending O’Neal at the 2008 trading deadline to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, with O’Neal ripping the Heat roster on the way out.
That left Riley, still coaching at the time, to pick up the pieces.
“He wanted to go to a contender and we sent him there,” Riley said. “We sent him to Utopia and we’re left here with the carnage and I don’t know why he’s not happy.”
All the while, Riley, in his front-office role, used that trade and several subsequent moves to put the team in a salary-cap position to sign Wade, James and Chris Bosh in the 2010 offseason, which, in turn, led to four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and championships in 2012 and ’13.
As with Hardaway and Mourning, amends eventually were made, with O’Neal’s No. 32 Heat jersey retired in 2016, with O’Neal going on to become a spokesman for Heat owner Micky Arison’s Carnival Cruise Line.
LeBron James
The expectation by Riley in the 2014 offseason was of having enough of a relationship with James to bring him back in the wake of the team’s failure against the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals.
In many ways, the approach was similar to Riley calling out of Butler after last season, in 2014 challenging James to stay “if you’ve got the guts.”
The approach did not work, with James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency.
The immediate response was reupping with Wade and Bosh, and then eventually trading for Goran Dragic, remaining far more competitive than after the two times the Cavaliers lost James.
Riley said he eventually came to grips with the need for James to bring a championship to his hometown team in Cleveland, with the expectation of the Heat eventually retiring James’ No. 6.
Dwyane Wade
As with the current situation with Butler, this very much came down to money.
With Wade 34 at the time (Butler is 35), the Heat in 2016 free agency instead prioritized the free agency of center Hassan Whiteside and the chance to sign Kevin Durant in free agency.
The result was an acrimonious departure by Wade to his hometown Chicago Bulls, upset that Riley did not do more to find an amenable solution.
“The business side comes out,” Wade said, “and you have to deal with it.”
The next steps hardly were smooth, the Heat and Riley attempting to patch things with the signings of Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Luke Babbitt, among others.